Byline: JAMES M. ODATO Capitol bureau
The Pataki administration may find a replacement for Barbara DeBuono as health commissioner within the state, health care professionals say.
After her more than three-year tenure as health commissioner ends this fall, when she reportedly will leave to join a New York City network of health providers, DeBuono could be replaced by a number of physicians with administrative skills, professionals say.
Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of the State of New York, said that on a short list is Dr. Russell Bessette, the plastic surgeon from Buffalo who chairs the New York State Public Health Council, an advisory group to the Health Department. Also, the Medical Society of New York State's chairman, Dr. Charles Aswad, would be a solid candidate, Sisto said.
Both Bessette and Aswad were unavailable for comment on Monday.
``I think there are already credible candidates,'' Sisto said.
Sisto and state Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon, R-Nassau County, said DeBuono's greatest accomplishments include leading the transition of New York's health care industry from a regulated to a competitive system, expanding health care coverage to more children and developing Medicaid managed care.
No one can blame her for taking the job as head of the New York and Presbyterian Healthcare Network, a $32 billion system of hospitals in the metropolitan area anchored by New York Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital, Kemp and Sisto agreed.
``The cutting edge in health care in the nation is the amalgamation of delivery systems as well as the amalgamation of geographic regions,'' Hannon said.
DeBuono, 42, will likely leave her $152,000 commissioner job after the November election, Hannon said.
DeBuono's spokesman and New York and Presbyterian's spokeswoman had no comment.
The commissioner became the first woman to run New York's Health Department, coming from a similar job in Rhode Island. She succeeded Mark Chassin, who came from California.
